The Story of Bhanavar the Beautiful

When on his desert mare I seeMy prince of men,I think him thenAs high above humanityAs he shines radiant over me.

Lo! like a torrent he doth bound,Breasting the shockFrom rock to rock:A pillar of storm, he shakes the ground,His turban on his temples wound.

Match me for worth to be adoredA youth like himIn heart and limb!Swift as his anger is his sword;Softer than woman his true word.

Snows of the mountain-peaks were mirror'd thereBeneath her feet, not whiter than they were;Not rosier in the white, that falling flushBroad on the wave, than in her cheek the blush.

She draws the heavens down to her,So rare she is, so fair she is;They flutter with a crown to her,And lighten only where she is.

Exquisite slenderness!Sleek little antelope!Serpent of sweetness!Eagle that soaringlyWins me adoringly!Teach me thy fleetness,Vision of loveliness;Turn to my tenderness!

Sadder than is the moon's lost light,Lost ere the kindling of dawn,To travellers journeying on,The shutting of thy fair face from my sight.Might I look on thee in death,With bliss I would yield my breath.

Oh! what warrior diesWith heaven in his eyes?O Bhanavar! too rich a prize!The life of my nostrils art thou,The balm-dew on my brow;Thou art the perfume I meet as I speed o'er the plains,The strength of my arms, the blood of my veins.

'Shall I counsel the moon in her ascending?Stay under that tall palm-tree through the night;Rest on the mountain-slopeBy the couching antelope,O thou enthroned supremacy of light!And for ever the lustre thou art lending,Lean on the fair long brook that leaps and leaps,—Silvery leaps and falls.Hang by the mountain walls,Moon! and arise no more to crown the steeps,For a danger and dolour is thy wending!

Long we the less for the pearl of the seaBecause in its depths there's the death we flee?Long we the less, the less, woe's me!Because thou art deathly,—the less for thee?

Destiny! Destiny! why am I so dark?I that have beauty and love to be fair.Destiny! Destiny! am I but a sparkTrack'd under heaven in flames and despair?Destiny! Destiny! why am I desiredThus like a poisonous fruit, deadly sweet?Destiny! Destiny! lo, my soul is tired,Make me thy plaything no more, I entreat!

Hast thou seen the wild herd by the jungle galloping close?With a thunder of hooves they trample what heads may oppose:Terribly, crushingly, tempest-like, onward they sweep:But a spring from the reeds, and the panther is sprawling in air.And with muzzle to dust and black beards foam-lash'd, here and there,Scatter'd they fly, crimson-eyed, track'd with blood to the deep.

Shouldst thou see a slim youth with a damsel arriving,Be sure 'tis the hour when thy fortune is thriving;A generous fee makes the members so suppleThat over the world they could carry this couple.

When we must part, love,Such is my smart, love,Sweetness is savourless,Fairness is favourless!But when in sight, love,We two unite, love,Earth has no sour to me;Life is a flower to me!

Even's star yonderComes like a crown on us,Larger and fonderGrows its orb down on us;So, love, my love for theeBlossoms increasingly;So sinks it in the sea,Waxing unceasingly.

I thought not to love again!But now I love as I loved not before;I love not; I adore!

O my beloved, kiss, kiss me! waste thy kisses like a rain.Are not thy red lips fain?Oh, and so softly they greet!Am I not sweet?Sweet must I be for thee, or sweet in vain:Sweet to thee only, my dear love!The lamps and censers sink, but cannot cheatThese eyes of thine that shoot aboveTrembling lustres of the dove!A darkness drowns all lustres: still I seeThee, my love, thee!Thee, my glory of gold, from head to feet!Oh, how the lids of the world close quite when our lips meet!

My life was midnight on the mountain side;Cold stars were on the heights:There, in my darkness, I had lived and died,Content with nameless lights.Sudden I saw the heavens flush with a beam,And I ascended soon,And evermore over mankind supreme,Stood silver in the moon.

Who will paint my belovedIn musical word or colour?Earth with an envy is moved:Sea-shells and roses she brings,Gems from the green ocean-springs,Fruits with the fairy bloom-dews,Feathers of Paradise hues,Waters with jewel-bright falls,Ore from the Genii-halls:

All in their splendour approved;All; but, match'd with my beloved,Darker, and denser, and duller.

Once to be beautiful was my pride,And I blush'd in love with my own bright brow:Once, when a wooer was by my side,I worshipp'd the object that had his vow:Different, different, different now,Different now is my beauty to me:Different, different, different now!For I prize it alone because prized by thee.

Whether we die or we live,Matters it now no more:Life has nought further to give:Love is its crown and its core.Come to us either, we're rife,—Death or life!

Death can take not away,Darkness and light are the same:We are beyond the pale ray,Wrapt in a rosier flame:Welcome which will to our breath,—Life or death!

The rose is living in her cheeks,The lily in her rounded chin;She speaks but when her whole soul speaks,And then the two flow out and in,And mix their red and white to makeThe hue for which I'd Paradise forsake.

Her brow from her black falling hairAscends like morn: her nose is clearAs morning hills, and finely fairWith pearly nostrils curving nearThe red bow of her upper lip;Her bosom's the white wave beneath the ship.

The fair full earth, the enraptured skies,She images in constant play:Night and the stars are in her eyes,But her sweet face is beaming day,A bounteous interblush of flowers:A dewy brilliance in a dale of bowers.

Bliss that is born of mutual esteemAnd tried companionship, I truly deemA well-based palace, wherein fountains riseFrom springs that have their sources in the skies.

Dark is that last stage of sorrowWhich from Death alone can borrowComfort:—

How little a thing serves Fortune's turnWhen she's intent on doing!How easily the world may burnWhen kings come out a-wooing!

Hither! hither!Come to your Queen;Come through the grey wall,Come through the green!

Over! over!Hie to the lake!Sleep with the left eye,Keep the right awake.

Yellow stripe, with freckle red,Coil and curl, and watch by my head.

Take me to thee!Like the deep-rooted tree,My life is half in earth, and drawsThence all sweetness; oh may my being pauseSoon beside thee!

Welcome me soon!As to the queenly moon,Man's homage to my beauty sets;Yet am I a rose-shrub budding regrets:Welcome me soon.

Soul of my soul!Have me not half, but whole.Dear dust, thou art my eyes, my breath!Draw me to thee down the dark sea of death,Soul of my soul!

Treble-tongue and throat of hell,What is come upon me, tell!

Jewel Queen! beauty's price!'Tis the time for sacrifice!

Treble-tongue and throat of fire,Name the creature ye require!

Ruby lip! poison tooth!We are hungry for a youth.

Treble-tongue and throat of glue!How to know the one that's due?

Breast of snow! baleful bliss!He that wooing wins a kiss.

Treble-tongue and throat of gall!There's a youth beneath the pall.

Brilliant eye! bloody tear!He has fed us for a year.

Treble-tongues and things of mud!Sprang my beauty from his blood?

Yearly one of us must die;Yearly for us dieth one;Else the Queen an ugly lieLives till all our lives be done!

"'Tis vanity our souls for such to vex;Patience is a harvest of the sex."

"Earth and ocean search, East, West, and North, to the South,None will match the bright rubies and pearls of her mouth."

"The lovely ones a bargain madeWith me, and I renounced my trade,Half-ruined; 'Ah!' said they, 'return and win!To even scales ourselves we will throw in!'"

Men of worth and men of witsShoot with two arrows, and make two hits.

'Tis said that love brings beauty to the cheeksOf them that love and meet, but mine are pale;For merciless disdain on me she wreaks,And hides her visage from my passionate tale:I have her only, only when she speaks.Bhanavar, unveil!

I have thee, and I have thee not! Like oneLifted by spirits to a shining daleIn Paradise, who seeks to leap and runAnd clasp the beauty, but his foot doth fail,For he is blind: ah! then more woful none!Bhanavar, unveil!

My beauty! for thy worthThank the Vizier!He gives thee second birth:Thank the Vizier!His blooming form without a fault:Thank the Vizier!Is at thy foot in this blest vault:Thank the Vizier!He knoweth not he telleth such a truth,Thank the Vizier!That thou, thro' him, spring'st fresh in blushing youth:Thank the Vizier!He knoweth little now, but he shall soon be wise:Thank the Vizier!This meeting bringeth bloom to cheeks and lips and eyes:Thank the Vizier!O my beloved in this blest vault, if I love thee for aye,Thank the Vizier!Thine am I, thine! and learns his soul what it has taught—to die,Thank the Vizier!

O Aswarak! star of the morn!Thou that wakenest my beauty from night and scorn,

Thy time is near, and when 'tis come,Long will a jackal howl that this thy request had been dumb.O Aswarak! star of the morn!

O Aswarak! star of the morn!Lo! the star must die when splendider light is born;In stronger floods the beam will drown:Shrink, thou puny orb, and dread to bring me my crown,O Aswarak! star of the morn!

I saw the moon behind a cloud,And I was cold as one that's in his shroud:And I cried, Moon! —

Moon! I cried, Moon!—and I cried. Moon!

And to the cryMoon did make fair the following reply:'Dotard, be still! for thy desireIs to embrace consuming fire.'

"Thou and IA cup will try,"

Hither, hither, to the feast!Hither to the sacrifice!Virtue for my sake hath ceased:Now to make an end of Vice!

Twisted-tail and treble-tongue,Swelling length and greedy maw!I have had a horrid wrong;Retribution is the law!

Ye that suck'd my youthful lord,Now shall make another meal:Seize the black Vizier abhorr'd;Seize him! seize him throat and heel!

Set your serpent wits to findTortures of a new device:Have him! have him heart and mind!Hither to the sacrifice'

Every hour a serpent dies,Till we have the sacrifice:Sweeten, sweeten, with thy kiss,Quick! a soul for Karatis.

Shall I counsel the moon in her ascending?—Stay under that dark palm-tree through the night,Rest on the mountain slope,By the couching antelope,O thou enthroned supremacy of light!And for ever the lustre thou art lendingLean on the fair long brook that leaps and leaps,Silvery leaps and falls:Hang by the mountain-walls.Moon! and arise no more to crown the steeps,For a danger and dolour is thy wending!

King of vileness! match thy slavesWith my creatures of the caves.

Seize upon him! sting him thro'!Thrice this day shall pay your due.

Dare against me to rebel,Ye, the bitter brood of hell?

One the kiss to us secures:Give us ours, and we are yours.

Him ye shall not have, I swear!Seize the King that's crouching there.

This is he the kiss ensures:Give us ours, and we are yours.

Never, never shall ye fold,Save with me the man I hold.